In the News

6 FACH Member Hospitals Ranked by US News & World Report

US News & World Report has published its list of best children’s hospitals for 2018. Six Florida children’s hospitals who are members of the Florida Association for Children’s Hospitals (FACH) were among the hospitals who ranked highly in specific specialty areas. To create the pediatric rankings, US News & World Report gathers key clinical data from nearly 200 medical centers through a detailed survey that looks at measures such as patient safety, infection prevention and adequacy of nurse staffing. In addition, part of each hospital’s score is derived from surveys of more than 11,000 pediatric specialists who are asked where they would send the sickest children in their specialty. In 2018, only 86 children’s hospitals were ranked in at least one of the pediatric specialties evaluated.

FACH hospitals and their rankings are:

UF Health Shands

39 – pediatric neonatology

49 – pediatric cancer

19 – pediatric cardiology and heart surgery

50 – pediatric neurology and neurosurgery

22 – pediatric pulmonology

27 – pediatric diabetes and endocrinology

Arnold Palmer Orlando

36 – pediatric cardiology and heart surgery

34 – pediatric diabetes and endocrinology

34 – pediatric orthopedics

38 – pediatric pulmonology

44 – pediatric urology

Joe DiMaggio

35 – pediatric orthopedics

Florida Hospital for Children

42 – pediatric neonatology

Wolfson Jacksonville

48 – pediatric cancer

47 – pediatric neurology and neurosurgery

Holtz

43 – pediatric diabetes and endocrinology

Best and Worst States for Children's Health Care

Raising a child in America is extremely expensive, costing the average parent over $230k, and health care accounts for a big chunk of the bill. While more kids are insured today than at any other point in history, the higher coverage rate hasn’t translated to lower health costs for parents. For example, out of pocket costs for patients aged 0 to 18 increased by 18% between 2012 and 2016.

But it’s a different story in every state. WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 30 key indicators of cost, quality and access to children’s health care. Their data set ranges from share of children aged 0 to 17 in excellent or very good health to pediatricians and family doctors per capita.

The Commonwealth Fund's 2018 Scorecard finds more improvement than decline in the functioning of state health care systems

All 50 states and the District of Columbia were assessed on more than 40 measures of access to health care, quality of care, efficiency in care delivery, health outcomes, and income-based health care disparities.